


We Won't Always Have Paris

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Friendship, Gen, after the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 15:47:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3697946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The time of heroes is at an end. It didn't last long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Won't Always Have Paris

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by **monanotlisa** : _Steve &/ Natasha, "I kept walking through grenades/Saw the world burn"_.

The time of heroes is at an end. It didn't last long. 

They've seen New York, Shanghai, and Rome, already. They've walked through smoke and rubble, survivors, revenants of an era that passed twenty years ago and more. They’ve been hailed, reviled, and ignored. They’ve seen what’s left of the world they tried to save. 

For Natasha, though, seeing Paris is hard. 

Perhaps it's because some of her best memories are here - a swift aperitif between missions, a silver pendant in a black velvet case, a shared smile leaning off the Pont d'Iéna. That was then – another life, another time. 

Now, Paris is burning. 

"Some men will set the world on fire, just to watch it burn." The quotation is wrong. Natasha knows it, but can’t remember the original. Still, it seems appropriate – and just as painful as the first time she realised it. 

Steve looks out over the smoking wreck of what was once an elegant modern city, and Natasha studies the set of his face, the twist of his mouth, the ghosts in his eyes. Does he see Paris as she remembers it - iconic and peaceful? Or does he see the city as he first saw it a hundred years ago, tense and huddling, war-torn? 

Twenty years has given her insight into the man, but she doubts she'll ever understand all of him. For a woman who was taught and trained to know men, that's no small compliment. 

Can he envision a new world, build out of the old? 

Natasha can't. Not yet. Maybe when the memories aren't so raw; when she's had time to adjust – again – to a new world, a new order of things. 

Maybe. 

Steve’s shoulders heave with a sigh. "The world used to be bigger," he murmurs. 

"World's still the same," Natasha answers, the words rising in her, unbidden, "there's just less in it."


End file.
